{"id":95898,"date":"2026-09-26T10:01:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/?post_type=glossary&p=95898"},"modified":"2026-09-26T10:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:02:02","slug":"subscriber-groups","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/subscriber-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Subscriber groups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You have customers, newsletter subscribers, webinar attendees and contacts from a trade show. If you keep them all in one bucket, every send ends up as a compromise. It’s too general for some and not useful enough for others. Subscriber groups help you bring order to that list and decide who gets each campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are subscriber groups?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Subscriber groups are sets of contacts you bring together under one name in your email marketing tool. They work like folders in your email database<\/a>: “Customers”, “Weekly newsletter”, “October webinar” or “Manchester store”, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same subscriber<\/a> can be in several groups at once. And that doesn’t mean they count twice: they’re still a single contact with one record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other tools call them lists or audiences. The idea is the same. To see how subscriber groups fit into your database, read our entry on email lists<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groups, segments, tags and custom fields<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

These are four ways to organize contacts, and people often mix them up. The difference lies in how each person gets in and out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tool<\/th>How it works<\/th>How a contact gets in<\/th>Use it for<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Group<\/td>Static set<\/td>On import, from a form, manually or through an automation<\/td>Stable audiences: customers, newsletter, events<\/td><\/tr>
Segment<\/td>Dynamic filter<\/td>Automatically, when they meet the conditions<\/td>Audiences that change: people who opened the last campaign<\/td><\/tr>
Tag<\/td>Label on the contact<\/td>After a form, a click or a workflow<\/td>Recording what they did: “downloaded the guide”<\/td><\/tr>
Custom field<\/td>Data in the record<\/td>When the value is filled in<\/td>Storing information: city, plan, sign-up date<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the key point: a group keeps the contacts you put in it, even if their data changes later. A segment, on the other hand, updates itself. Imagine a contact in Manchester moves to Leeds. They’ll stay in the “Manchester” group, but they’ll leave the “city = Manchester” segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tags<\/a> are better for noting behaviour. And custom fields<\/a> store data you’ll later use for segmentation in email marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Differences<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What subscriber groups are used for<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most obvious use is sending each audience only what interests them. But there’s more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n